Follow Us

More

The Flash Director Shortlist Also Includes Sam Raimi

Yet another director's name has been added to the shortlist of reported frontrunners for The Flash. The next DC Extended Universe movie, Wonder Woman, is only a few short weeks from being released and various cameos in last year's Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice set up Justice League, opening this fall. With both of those films and Aquaman already in some stage of production, the time appears to have come to find a director to helm The Flash solo movie.

The Flash TV show is already a solid success for The CW, so there is extra pressure on the writers and director to make sure the DCEU Flash movie can stand on its own and be done well. Both film and show are focused on the Barry Allen character - with Ezra Miller playing him in the DCEU - so whoever directs the DCEU film will need to tell Barry's story in all the more interesting a way, without repeating what The Flash TV series has already done.

Several directors are being considered to direct The Flash, with both Matthew Vaughn and Robert Zemeckis being mentioned as contenders earlier today. And now it appears that a third candidate is being considered for the job too, according to THR: Sam Raimi.

Raimi certainly has a lot of experience when it comes to superheros. He wrote and directed the original superhero film Darkman, directed all three of the original Spider-Man movies, produced the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journey, and developed and produced the spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess. He is also a fan favorite considering his involvement in the cult horror-comedy films The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness; not to mention bringing that franchise to TV with Ash vs. Evil Dead on Starz, featuring his longtime collaborator Bruce Campbell. While those projects are not specifically superhero stories, they are very much about the character Ash learning how to be a hero in the face of horrible monsters.

By the time The Flash is in theaters, Miller's Barry Allen will already have been well introduced in the DCEU. He was seen for brief moments in Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad but again, is one of the main characters of Justice League. Its possible his origin will have already been explained, by the time The Flash solo movie arrives, giving the latter more of a sequel vibe.

At this time, Zemeckis and Vaughn are considered the frontrunners, but Raimi's experience in the superhero genre might give him enough of an edge to secure the job for himself - should Zemeckis and/or Vaughn pass on directing, for whatever reasons (see, for example, their workloads).